The heretofore inaccessible regions of the most important anatomy of the gut, and the lack of technology to explore, discover, and experiment in an in vivo manner, and then administer medications and measure in vivo the immediate results, has constrained and obstructed beyond description throughout history the advance of medical science pertaining to the gut. Food suppliers and preparers are largely oblivious to gut responses to the foods they deliver. As an intelligent society, we appear grossly disorganized in this regard, especially as pertains to priorities, such as exploring and knowing more about the cosmos than our own gut. The importance and urgency of such inexplicable phenomena posed an irresistible challenge to formulate a global perspective of the gut as a system and to identify the pertinent variables. It came as a surprise initially to learn that there are more than 10,000 variables, many of which have never been identified or characterized, that affect gut health. Never in history has there been so little known about such a common, popular item manifested in and possessed by all animals.
A competent research effort investigating any animate or inanimate system should attempt to identify the fundamental multidisciplinary scientific principles of science and engineering upon which the system is based and functions, and then develop quantitative measures of those principles. The inaccessibility of the gut, and heretofore lack of technology, has resulted in speculation and statistical correlation of symptoms from a distance throughout history as a means of researching the gut. The need for in vivo technology became immediately apparent. However, as a civilized society we have imposed some extremely limiting constraints and time consuming processes upon the development and implementation of medical technology. The technical challenge alone is formidable. Nevertheless, the only systematic and rational approach to developing gut medical science appears to demand in vivo technology. Likewise, never in our history has there been such a broad-based, compelling need for such technology. Thus, a holistic research perspective was formed and the possible combinations of many tools and processes needed to accomplish all that was perceived as being needed, began to take shape, component by component, tool by tool. Eventually the various concepts were condensed into three basic tools, Capsules A, B and C, and additional supporting technology and infrastructure, that when ultimately developed and implemented as a system, should address the immediate need to serve a creditable initial systems approach to introduce gut in vivo technology.